encombrer

Inherited from Middle French encombrer, from Old French encombrer (“to hinder, burden, encumber”), from Early Medieval Latin incombrāre (“to hinder, inconvenience, burden”), from combrus (“barricade of felled trees”), possibly from Gaulish *komberū, from Proto-Celtic *kombereti (“to bring together”) (compare Old Irish conbeir (“brings together, bears”)), from *kom- +‎ *bereti (“to bear”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti (“to be carrying”).^[1][2] Alternatively from Latin cumulus (“heap, pile”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell”).^[3]

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.kɔ̃.bʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

encombrer

1. (transitive) to block off, to clutter, to clutter up, to congest
2. (transitive) to encumber, to burden
3. (transitive) to jam (e.g. a switchboard)

• encombrant

• ancumbrer
• encumbrer

From combre, more at encombrer.

• IPA^(key): /enkumˈbɾeːɾ/

encombrer

1. to bother; to irritate; to annoy
2. to burden

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. In the present tense an extra supporting e is needed in the first-person singular indicative and throughout the singular subjunctive, and the third-person singular subjunctive ending -t is lost. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• French: encombrer
• → Middle English: encombren
  • English: encumber
• → Middle English: combren
  • English: cumber

• Etymology and history of “encombrer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (encombrer)